Several MoUs to be signed during Saudi minister’s visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia would sign a number of MoUs in areas related to food research and the establishment of a Pakistan-Saudi Agri Investment Fund during the upcoming visit of Saudi Minister for Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadley to.

Key points

• Saudi Minister for Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadley is projected to visit Pakistan in the current month.
• The Saudi delegation is additionally anticipated to hold meetings with provincial agriculture ministers to explore further avenues of collaboration and strengthen coordination between the two countries.
• The minister directed all relevant departments to ensure close coordination and develop concrete, commercially viable proposals aimed at enhancing Pakistan's agricultural and food exports to Saudi Arabia.
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Saudi Minister for Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadley is projected to visit Pakistan in the current month. As part of the visit, the Saudi delegation is scheduled to visit the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), where it will be briefed on Pakistan's agricultural research, innovation and development initiatives. The delegation will additionally meet representatives of leading Pakistani agricultural business groups to explore opportunities for trade, investment and joint ventures. The Saudi minister would meet top authorities of the administration of Pakistan during his visit. In this regard, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Establishment Division Senator Ahad Cheema chaired a session to review significant progress and emerging opportunities for expanding Pakistan's agricultural and food products trade with Saudi Arabia, with a particular focus on boosting exports, strengthening bilateral market linkages and creating new avenues for investment and private-sector partnerships.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Secretary Commerce Jawad Paul, Secretary National Food Security and Research Amer Ali Ahmad, Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Sohail Ashraf, authorities of the Foreign Office and representatives of other concerned departments attended the gathering.

During the session, office-holders briefed the participants on the progress of initiatives aimed at expanding bilateral trade in agricultural and food products and highlighted opportunities for further cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the agriculture and food sectors. The federal minister remarked the upcoming visit of Saudi Minister for Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadley to Pakistan would be significant in further strengthening bilateral cooperation in agriculture and food trade and exploring new avenues for investment and joint ventures. Haroon calls for unlocking expansion potential of Pakistan's gemstones sector.

He continued that the administration wants to significantly expand its exports of agricultural and food products to Saudi Arabia by leveraging the country's vast agricultural potential, strengthening value chains and facilitating greater private-sector engagement.

In practice, the session was informed that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had identified four key areas for cooperation in the food sector, including meat, rice, processed food and animal fodder. The Saudi delegation is additionally anticipated to hold meetings with provincial agriculture ministers to explore further avenues of collaboration and strengthen coordination between the two countries. Pakistan keen to strengthen economic engagement with OIC countries: Sheikh.

Ahad Cheema highlighted that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is particularly keen to deepen economic and agricultural cooperation with Saudi Arabia and translate the longstanding brotherly relations between the two countries into stronger trade, investment and mutually beneficial economic partnerships.

Notably, the minister directed all relevant departments to ensure close coordination and develop concrete, commercially viable proposals aimed at enhancing Pakistan's agricultural and food exports to Saudi Arabia. He expressed the hope that the upcoming visit would provide fresh momentum to bilateral economic relations and result in tangible progress in agricultural trade, investment, research and joint ventures between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. PAFLA to hold national recognition ceremony for freelancers.

Taken together, the developments around several MoUs to be signed during Saudi minister's visit to Pakistan point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.